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REPORT 



OF THE 



Senate Committee on 
Penitentiary Reform 



TO THE 



48th General Assembly 



OF 



MISSOURI 




1915 



REPORT 



OF THE 



Senate Committee on 
Penitentiary Reform 



TO THE 



48TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY 



OF 



MISSOURI 




1915 



v \\j % 



3 



45 






D. of D. 
FES 10 J15 



Jefferson City 

The Hugh Stephens Co. 

Printers 



REPORT OF THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON 
PENITENTIARY REFORM. 



To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Forty-eighth 
General Assembly of Missouri: 

The Senate Penitentiary Committee appointed by the 
Senate of the 47th General Assembly of Missouri, consisted 
of Charles P. Hawkins of Kennett, Dunklin County, Missouri, 
Chairman; Michael E. Casey of Kansas City, Jackson County; 
Wallace Crossley of Warrensburg, Johnson County; A. E. L. 
Gardner of Kirkwood, St. Louis County, and Francis M. Wil- 
son, president pro tern of the Senate of Platte City, Platte 
County, Missouri, as ex officio member of such committee. 
The latter named Senator, by reason of being later appointed 
United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri 
by President Wilson, declined to serve upon said Committee. 

The Committee was appointed to fully investigate present 
conditions in Missouri and the several states and to report to 
the Senate of the 48th General Assembly the advisability of 
abolishing the contract labor system in the Missouri prison, 
and, if abolished, to suggest what employment, if any, should 
be given to the inmates of the penitentiary and other penal 
institutions of the State. 

This Committee was authorized to make full and com- 
plete investigation of the question, and the sum of $5,000.00 
was appropriated from the contingent fund of the Senate, to 
pay all necessary traveling expenses, including hotel bills, print- 
ing, correspondence and actual expenses of the Committee and 
its employes. The resolution provided for the printing of 
five thousand copies of the report, which expense will be borne 
by the funds appropriated to the Committee, a full report of 
all expenditures being required under the resolution. This 
particular feature of the report will appear later, following 
some additional expense which will be incurred in paying for 
the traveling expenses and entertainment of certain distin- 
guished prison authorities and experts, whom the Committee 
has invited to visit and address the General Assembly. 

(3) 



4 [52 

Your Committee begs to call the attention of the Legisla- 
ture and the citizens of Missouri to the report of Senator F. 
M. McDavid, as chairman of the special committee, made 
on Tuesday, March 30th, 1909, to the 45th General Assem- 
bly of the State of Missouri. This report will be found on 
pages 789 to 793, inclusive, of the Senate Journal of 1909, said 
committee having been appointed by the preceding Senate 
two years before. We have found, as reported by the previous 
committee, referred to above, that in the various prisons and 
penal institutions of the United States several different methods 
are adopted and in vogue. From personal inquiry and visits, 
supplemented by correspondence with practically all the penal 
institutions in the United States, we find a variety in plan 
and theory of operation, as well as in plan and scope of man- 
agement. In certain states public sentiment yet holds to the 
theory that the greater and more severe the punishment the 
more it will tend to deter men from crime. In other localities 
we find broader, more humane, more progressive views per- 
taining to the treatment of the offender, and the last decade 
has been marked by great changes in the penal system of many 
states, although Missouri is one of the few states remaining 
in the background of progress. State and national commis- 
sions, eminent penologists and sociologists have gone deeply 
and thoroughly into the prison question, have shown the abuses 
existing under the old systems, and by appealing to the heart 
and judgment of the great American public have aroused an 
interest in this tremendous problem, an interest which now 
demands and will compel a solution of its difficulties in our 
own State. We feel, after two years of investigation and in- 
quiry, after consulting with many who might be termed experts 
in prison management and in dealing 'with law-breakers, that 
the problem has already been solved for us, but that it yet 
remains for Missouri to apply the solution to her own needs 
and conditions. 

We have in our State Penitentiary at Jefferson City more 
prisoners than are to be found in any other penal institution 
in the United States. There are at Jefferson City, including 
the female prisoners, more than 2,500 individuals, aside from 
the inmates of the reformatories for boys and girls at Chilli- 
cothe and Boonville. In some of the states there is a far greater 
number in the penal institutions; for example, in New York, 
whose penal population numbers 13,000 individuals. 



52] 5 

Your Committee understood that the chief purpose of 
its creation and appointment was to ascertain: (a) whether 
the Missouri penitentiary could and should abolish the private 
contract system and yet remain practically self-sustaining; (b) 
what employment, in lieu of such system, could be furnished 
the prisoners; (c) if the same could not be done fully and im- 
mediately, then could it be accomplished gradually, and (d) 
at what expense and loss to the taxpayers these suggested changes 
could be made. 

In the beginning your Committee differed greatly upon 
these questions; in fact, no two of us held the same opinion 
about any of the great problems arising out of prison condi- 
tions; however, after studying the subject conscientiously and 
after visiting the various prisons of the United States and Can- 
ada, it was unanimous upon many, if not upon all of the ques- 
tions concerned, and is practically agreed as to what it con- 
siders the Legislature of Missouri should consider and enact 
into laws. While we do not undertake to dictate the actual 
vote or views of the members, either of the Senate or the House 
of Representatives of the 48th General Assembly, we beg to 
make the following statement to the Assembly and to the State 
at large: 

STATEMENT. 

Your Committee finds that our prison at Jefferson City, 
which has been practically under the same system for many 
years, is as well managed as it has ever been in the history of 
the State, if we may judge from personal interviews with 
inmates, officers and officials having supervision over the insti- 
tution, but that the buildings, surroundings and general con- 
duct, by virtue of the perpetuation of a long continued custom, 
are not abreast with the spirit of the age, are not such as would 
commend themselves to those who believe that the system 
under which our institution is operated is more or less archaic 
and out of harmony with present day conditions and demands. 
We visited all but three of the prisons in which we were par- 
ticularly interested, and we find that other prisons under a 
similar system are not any improvement upon our own, and 
that some of them are far below our own standard. We shall 
take the liberty, without discrimination or intentional offense, 
of mentioning a few of the prisons that your Committee had the 
privilege and pleasure of visiting, which we deem to be par- 



' ' 6 [52 

ticularly worthy of mention. In so doing we must not be 
understood as ignoring, criticising, or condemning others. 

As a Committee and as individuals we were received most 
kindly at every place, reformatory and prison, and every cour- 
tesy was extended to us that we could hope for or anticipate. 
At no time or place were we denied any information that was 
within the power of the executive, his subordinates or the 
officers in charge to furnish. We were given free access, unlim- 
ited time and detailed explanation of the methods, manage- 
ment and results obtained at the various institutions. 

Your Committee realizes that the report furnished to the 
Senate of the 45th General Assembly was a strong presenta- 
tion of Missouri needs, and that the ideas embodied in the 
report were worthy of consideration and adoption, but owing 
to the fact that public sentiment was not then awake to the 
importance of this great problem, we are inclined to the belief 
that the labors and recommendations of that committee were 
not fully appreciated, either by the Legislature or the tax- 
payers of Missouri. We feel, however, that the time has come 
for a change, and as we have conscientiously attempted to 
carry out the instructions delegated to this Committee under 
a special resolution, we now submit our report to the 48th Gen- 
eral Assembly for its mature and deliberate consideration. 
Before making any suggestions or recommendations we ask 
your indulgence while we briefly state some of the conditions 
called to the attention of your Committee: 

IN OTHER STATES. 

First, taking the historic prison at Frankfort, Kentucky, 
we found they had not fully abandoned the private contract 
system, but were gradually doing so. We found that they 
had practically abandoned the penal punishment of the pris- 
oners; that every prisoner is permitted to be as nearly natural 
as possible, and so long as he conducts himself properly and 
keeps in a sanitary condition, he is neither shaven nor his hair 
clipped; if his conduct under the trusty system is perfect, he 
may talk and engage in outdoor amusements twice a week, 
and when his assigned employment is up to the standard there 
is no limitation of food or of correspondence with family and 
friends; he has the privilege of confidentially writing the warden 
once a day about any matter, personal or otherwise, and the 
correspondence is treated as confidential. The system of con- 



52] 7 

fidence and privacy existing between the warden, chaplain, 
doctor and inmates is proving quite satisfactory. They have 
some evening amusements, and each prisoner desiring to avail 
himself of the opportunity for betterment is given school les- 
sons by the chaplain, warden, and by other prisoners from 
seven till nine o'clock every evening, except Sundays, one- 
third each evening, so that every inmate is given at least two 
lessons each week. While in the matter of the appropriations 
for the upkeep of the buildings, the warden's home and the 
salaries of its officers, this prison is not all that the citizenship 
of the State expects or desires, yet it is an impressive one and 
your Committee was much profited by visiting it. 

The great Female Reformatory at Indianapolis is cer- 
tainly a remarkable institution; there is but one male attendant 
in the entire institution. It is managed by women of unques- 
tioned character and much experience; it is proving a success 
and is practically self-sustaining. The inmates are employed 
at garment making for the poor and for charitable institutions; 
they also do laundry work. A visit to this institution impresses 
one with its excellent, perfect and successful financial man- 
agement; it resembles an institution of charity or a hospital 
for unfortunate women. 

The Reformatory at Jeffersonville, Indiana, of which Dr. 
David S. Peyton has charge, has largely abandoned the private 
contract system, only a few articles being manufactured there 
for sale upon the open market. This institution is managed 
under the trusty system, and while the age limits of its inmates 
is 35 years, yet all of the penal institutions of the state, because 
of the wonderful judgment, magnetism and managerial ability 
of the superintendent of the above named institution, transfer 
to this institution such prisoners as they are unable to control, 
and but few are there of these who do not become obedient 
and compliant prisoners under his kind treatment and man- 
agement. The superintendent of this institution is one oj the 
most wonderful men intellectually, morally, religiously and as 
a disciplinarian whom we have ever had the pleasure of meet- 
ing. This institution is not nearly self-sustaining because of 
the wonderful improvements being made within it and the trade 
schools it maintains. Here at evening-tide every prisoner, 
after an honest day's service, marches to the sound of the drum 
and the strains of music to the flag of this Republic, removes 
his cap and places it over his left breast in recognition of the 



8 [52 

Stars and Stripes. The flag is then lowered and carried to the 
hall, where the warden, chaplain and prison officers mingle 
with the inmates and hear their grievances and requests. To 
see them one would be disposed to believe they were as happy 
as men, deprived of their liberty and the association of friends 
and family, could possibly be. 

The Reformatory at Huntington, Pennsylvania, is largely 
conducted on the same order as the one at Jeffersonville, Ind., 
and is managed largely in the same way, except that the former 
is not quite so fully self-sustaining, for the reason that in this 
institution they undertake to teach by trade and literary schools 
a vocation in preparation for life. The question in this insti- 
tution is not one of profit, or of being self-sustaining, but one of 
complete reformation and preparation for life and of the making 
of useful and successful citizens of its inmates. Your Com- 
mittee was advised that with the farm of some 1,500 acres in 
connection with this institution it was rapidly becoming self- 
sustaining. 

The penitentiary at Columbus, Ohio, is not quite self- 
sustaining for the reason that the management gives two days 
school a week to all prisoners, and for the further reason that 
machinery is largely abandoned and all articles sold to the 
outside world are made by hand, save and except for the articles 
manufactured for this and other state institutions. Two and 
a half days off each week are allowed for amusements and out- 
door exercises for its inmates, more attention being paid to the 
physical, educational and moral conduct and condition of the 
prisoners than to revenue. 

The prisons in New Jersey, the District of Columbia,, 
another in Kentucky, Nashville, Tennessee, two in Illinois, 
one in the State of Arkansas, and many others visited by your 
Committee, like our own State, have not fully awakened to 
the real conditions, and are not out along the picket line of 
progress. 

Referring again to model prisons, the one that impressed 
your Committee most is at Stillwater, Minn. We can hardly 
hope to emulate this institution for the reason that our people 
would not stand for the appropriations or taxation to erect 
such a structure. The erection of this prison was at an expense 
of more than four and a half million dollars. The Minnesota 
prison, however, is more than self-sustaining. 

The State Reformatory at Elmira, New York, is indeed 
a model of excellence in equipment, discipline, training and 



52] 9 

the results secured. Having heard much of this institution 
your Committee was in nowise disappointed upon being shown 
through its every department and seeing the wonderful results 
secured in its trade schools and the literary training of the 
young fellows who are serving time there. With data extending 
back several years those in charge unqualifiedly assert that 
no less than sixty-five per cent of those who emerge from this 
institution are without any further criminal records. In this 
as in other institutions visited, which are making the most 
progress along the lines of reforming the individuals sent there, 
those in charge are peculiarly adapted to the work in hand, 
the attendants and instructors holding their positions through 
merit rather than political "pull." The Eastern State Peniten- 
tiary at Philadelphia is worthy of high praise and the Michi- 
gan City, Ind., prison is doing splendidly. " 

Come with us now to Mansfield, Ohio, where James A. 
Leonard, the godfather of the Canadian prison system and the 
recognized leader of prison reform, has had charge of this insti- 
tution for more than fourteen years on a salary of $7,400.00 per 
year. The officers of that institution devote every moment 
of their time to the comfort, control and advice of the prisoners. 
The warden is the lawyer, doctor, preacher, confidential friend 
and adviser of every prisoner. The trusty system prevails 
and each prisoner may write the warden, confidentially and 
no one know it save and except him and the warden, and he 
is given, without any one present, except the clerk or attend- 
ant and the warden, an audience with the warden the following 
evening; and if desired, a talk with the warden in his own pri- 
vate office. There is no limitation of food, conversation or letter, 
so long as their employment is satisfactory and no demerit 
marks are chalked against them. Each prisoner is allowed three 
cents per hour for eight hours employment. The indeterminate 
sentence system has been adopted in Ohio, as in many other 
states; a non-partisan prison board elects the warden; neither 
his religion nor his politics is inquired into; his morality and 
eminent fitness and qualifications for the position alone are 
considered. But few guards are used, and none save and except 
the guards on the outer walls are permitted to bear arms; 
nor are any allowed to use profane language or indulge in intox- 
icants; neither are they permitted to abuse the prisoners, and 
if the same is done they are discharged. Every prisoner who 
has no demerit marks against his credit is permitted, after 

s. c. P. R.— 2 



10 [52 

eight hours' service, to manufacture any article, using the ma- 
terial of the state; when such article is sold the prisoner receives 
the full market price, less the cost of the raw material. 

The institution at Mansfield, Ohio, is one that is peculiarly 
gratifying to the State administration and the entire citizenship 
of that State, so far as your Committee was advised. Their 
dairy is self-sustaining and occupies an intermediate ground 
between the prison and the farm of fifteen hundred acres, which 
was purchased in an unimproved condition. Their large cold- 
storage rooms are filled to overflowing with every vegetable 
and article grown upon the productive farm, and one hundred 
and fifty young men— first offenders — trusties, without a guard, 
till this farm and bring the supplies to the institution. It is almost 
self-sustaining. All kinds of canned fruit and canned products 
are shipped from this institution to the asylums, soldiers' homes, 
institutions for the deaf, dumb and blind and other eleemosy- 
nary institutions. Your Committee was advised that, with 
the exception of beef, this institution had not purchased upon 
the open market any of the articles for its sustenance and main- 
tenance in seven years. Such articles as mops, floor mats, 
brooms, saddle trees, carpets, furniture, desks, chairs, beds, 
mattresses and other articles, such as clothing for all of the 
state institutions, are manufactured here in a successful and 
profitable way. 

At Marquette, Michigan, there is to be found one of the 
most attractive and best equipped institutions this Commit- 
tee has seen, and there is a spirit of broad sympathy and under- 
standing manifested between the authorities and those in their 
charge. 

Perhaps the most interesting of all the institutions visited, 
•because it is the last word in prison building and in the treat- 
ment of prisoners, if we may except those states wherein the 
honor system so largely prevails, is the Great Meadows Prison 
at Comstock, N. Y. Here is to be found a magnificent institu- 
tion with 900 or more inmates, surrounded by a 1,200 acre 
farm, and strange as it may seem, there are no walls. This 
institution is a sort of finishing school for all the New York 
prisons, where those more deserving and whose records are 
best are sent. At Great Meadows the convicts are allowed 
such liberties as would make trie old-time prison men stand 
aghast, and yet the privileges granted are rarely abused. They 



52] 11 

live and work in the open air, retiring to the cells only at night. 
No prison pallor marks them as convicts. They are accus- 
tomed to meeting outsiders and they are free from the hang- 
dog, apologetic, or brazenly defiant expression so character- 
istic of those in confinement. When these men emerge from 
prison they are better able to face the world anew physically, 
mentally and morally, because of the health and independence 
they have acquired in this particular mode of prison life, so 
that they do not readily fall prey to temptations and evil asso- 
ciation when they resume their place in society. 

HONOR SYSTEM AND ROAD WORK. 

In Colorado and other western states the prisons have 
furnished the men who have built state roads, and as Warden 
Tynan says, "The honor system has had a triumphant vin- 
dication. Splendid highways have been shot through moun- 
tain vastnesses, splendid manhood has been made from degraded, 
sullen and vicious men, and this has only been possible from 
a system founded on appeal to the best in men." Of course, 
not every convict is permitted to work on the roads, but as 
the warden says, the road camps are the hope of every man in 
the prison. Quoting further from the Colorado Warden, we call 
attention to this statement: "During the past four years we 
have had over eighteen hundred individual" men working in 
our honor camps. These men without guards, some fifty and 
one hundred, and even three hundred miles away from the prison, 
have created a national reputation for loyalty. Only a little 
over one in every one hundred men has violated his pledge not to 
run away, which is far less than the desertions from the United 
States army or navy; and communities have come to feel as 
safe near our prison road camps as they would anywhere." 

Other states which have adopted this feature are Oregon, 
New Mexico, Wyoming, Arizona and Utah, while Illinois, 
Wisconsin, New Jersey, Vermont and Connecticut and other 
eastern states are now experimenting with convict road build- 
ing. 

The Virginia State prison is unable to supply the demand 
made by the various counties for convict road-workers, but 
about half of the prisoners are thus employed, the other half 
remaining in the prison factories conducted by private con- 
tractors. In Virginia the state furnishes the men, pays for 



12 [52 

their board and the expense of guarding them, while the county 
in which they may be working supplies teams and machinery 
for road building. Your Committee visited two convict road 
camps in Virginia and found a fine spirit prevailing among the 
convicts thus engaged in outdoor work. 

Our reference to convict road work and camps should not 
be construed as in any way relating to the system prevailing 
in certain southern states, where convicts are leased to private 
contractors for road building, but even in these states there is 
no objection to negro convict gangs working on the public 
roads, and there is an absence of fear among the people who 
live in remote plantations, so that from the experience of other 
states, we feel that there is no foundation for the alarm raised 
by interested parties and uninformed citizens in Missouri as 
to the reign of terror that would ensue in the farming com- 
munities should our convicts be employed in building roads. 
It would seem that the penitentiary problem and the road build- 
ing problem should be correlated to a degree and that the 
solution of the one should be found to a certain extent in the 
solution of the other. Missouri wants better roads; it must 
employ the convicts; and while the state treasury might suffer 
because of decreased revenue were several hundred convicts 
removed from the earning force of the penitentiary, the several 
counties would profit immensely, and with a system of state 
roads the entire Commonwealth would reap immense advan- 
tages through increased market and transportation facilities 
with all the attendant blessings which would follow in the 
wake of a well-planned system of highways. 

Kansas has begun to see the light and is even now putting 
into practice many of the theories which have heretofore ap- 
peared to us as impractical and even chimerical, but which 
have been proven in other states as entirely worthy of adoption 
because they are fruitful in results to society. It is a short- 
sighted policy and a grave error for any state to spend huge 
sums in convicting and punishing law-breakers and in detain- 
ing them within prison walls, without striving in every possible 
way to make them better when released than they were before. 
Kansas is now about to spend large sums upon prison improve- 
ments. 



52] 13 

A SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC QUESTION. 

We submit as a text for the suggestions which follow a 
statement made by the National Committee on Prison Labor, 
a strong, studious body of men, who gave to the subject much 
careful thought, and reached this conclusion: "After one year 
of study the" National Committee on Prison Labor found the 
preponderance of evidence to be in favor of the State Usage 
System (this system obtains in New York where all products 
of the prisons are disposed of to the various state institutions 
which must use goods manufactured at the prisons unless 
released from the obligation by the State Prison Board, no 
prison products being placed on the open market). After a 
second year of study and further investigation the Committee 
is in a position to declare as prejudicial to the welfare of the 
prisoner, the prisoner's family and the public, the contract sys- 
tem of prison labor. Your Committee therefore declares itself 
opposed to the contract system of prison labor and to every 
other system which exploits his labor to the detriment of the 
prisoner." 

A great economic question is involved in the consideration 
of prison labor products. Says a shirt manufacturer, "All goods 
are sold commercially, and the lowest price makes the price 
for all, as long as the cheaper article is on sale." In his report 
for 1910, Hon. J. C. A. Hiller, the Commissioner of Labor of Mis- 
souri, clearly states this idea when he says: "A bad feature for 
the outside manufacturer is that convict goods can be and 
are sold to dealers and jobbers at figures slightly below their 
own. Therefore, it is very plain that all prison made articles 
stand a better chance of selling first, and the demand must 
exceed this output before the jobbers and dealers can begin to 
handle the products of the regular taxpaying factories employ- 
ing honest, wage-earning men and women." 

If the output of the convict labor shops in Missouri should 
amount to $5,000,000 annually, and if convict labor is two- 
thirds as efficient as free labor, it might be estimated that 1200 
or 1400 free wage-earners were thrown out of work with a loss 
of $750,000 in wages. That loss is, however, a comparatively 
small matter, although too often it is the only factor considered 
in dealing with this problem. The portentous consequence to 
society is the demoralization of the market with its ruinous 
effects upon manufacturers employing free labor and the results 



14 [52 

in low wages for their employes, for it must be remembered 
that the outside manufacturer is without the advantage of 
free rent, power, heat and untaxed plant. This briefly calls 
attention to the hurtful influences of the contract system upon 
free labor, and it should be remembered that it is not the amount 
of wages involved so much as the demoralization of the market. 
The Missouri institutions would not furnish a market for 
penal products which would keep more than 200 or 300 men 
busy; there would undoubtedly be a saving to the various 
state institutions, and at the same time, while restricting slightly 
the selling field for a few manufacturers, the outside market 
would not be disturbed because factory wage-workers would 
not be exposed to convict competition. 

THE STATE'S OBLIGATION. 

While this Committee realizes that the penal institutions 
should and may be self-sustaining, that the prisoners should 
earn money for their own support and something more for the 
benefit of their families; that the law-breaker should be pun- 
ished for his offenses, and that it is best for him and for society 
at large that he be deprived of his liberty until he shall learn to 
appreciate freedom and respect the law — with all this granted, 
we submit that merely because a man is regarded as an enemy 
to society and is incarcerated for safe-keeping in a jail or prison, 
is not sufficient grounds for the somewhat widespread belief 
that the State is then absolved from further responsibility. 
Some one has said: "To keep him safe from society has long ago 
been dismissed as the motive for his imprisonment. To keep 
him safe for society has at last become the ideal toward which 
all influences must co-operate. He is not simply a man more 
or less diseased, nor a will more or less gone astray, nor a bunch, 
of muscles which have never found their proper use, nor a skill 
and health gradually falling into impaired conditions by disuse. 
He is a brain running all the way from feeble-mindedness to 
cunning; he is a will running all the way from obstinacy to the 
power of self-direction. He is a human soul out of repair, 
and the scope of the State's responsibility includes the care 
of these wayward souls in the exact ratio in which they seem 
to have no soul. The less soul the more care." There is no 
escape from this responsibility. 

The prisoner must work, but it should not be senseless 



52] 15 

or unreasonable labor; therefore those who have charge over 
him should be carefully trained men who will direct the con- 
vict mind, hand and heart, educating if possible to a better 
manhood those to whom citizenship, temporarily denied, will 
again be granted. The prison or reformatory should not be 
made a dumping ground for professional politicians, a market 
for the political spoilsman, a place in which to pay political 
debts. Appointees, guards and attendants, who hold their 
places as political rewards, cannot serve to mold the human 
material in their charge into better beings, for under such man- 
agement and guidance the prisoner when released is quite 
likely to be broken in spirit, dependent and hopelessly indiffer- 
ent as to his future, or sullen, resentful, defiant and hardened 
toward all authority; in either case totally unfit to become a 
citizen and mingle in society. The state penitentiary under 
the political system of many states has too often become a crib 
out of which place-seekers eat, when it should be a salvage 
house for the repairing of humanity. 

While we are upon this phase of the subject it might inter- 
est the Legislature and the public to know that in interviews 
with many leading prison officials of the country when our 
plans for a reorganization of the Missouri penal system were 
discussed, and when they were asked if their services would 
be available in the event suggested changes were made, the 
unvarying reply was, "Not unless the prison sytem were removed 
as far as possible from politics, for prison reform and real effi- 
ciency in prison management cannot be secured under selfish, 
hampering political domination." 

Returning to the State's duty toward the prisoner, let 
us add that all labor should have a definite end in view. Em- 
ployment should be effective as well as profitable. It were 
better that each should be given a work fitting him for some 
vocation; but in any event, the prisoner should not become a 
mere machine. The great prison men of today know that to 
improve the prisoner it is essential to develop whatever rem- 
nant of self-respect may be left within him. In almost every 
man there is an element of good which can be appealed to no 
matter how much the evil may predominate. His employment 
should count for something for himself; he should know that 
his family receives part of his earnings, and that he is repaying 
his obligation to the State, But why, we ask 5 in fairness to all 



16 [52 

concerned, to the State, the taxpayer, the prisoner, or his 
family, should he be compelled to labor for the private gain 
of unrelated individuals? The State has the first right to his 
labor, because his confinement is an expense to the State, but 
whatever he earns above his support should belong to the 
family from which he is taken, or reserved for himself so that 
he may not be without funds when he is freed from prison. 

For whom should the prisoner work, and under whose 
supervision? Your Committee replies for the State alone and 
under State authority. Some insist that the State cannot 
handle convict labor and dispose of penitentiary products so 
efficiently as it is done under private management, through 
the employing of convicts by private parties. Common sense 
teaches and experience proves that this is an absurdity, born 
of selfishness and greed. Is not Missouri a great corporation, 
conducted presumably along business lines, and, are we ready 
to admit that properly selected officials, men of business sense, 
could not manage the business of our. penal institutions? Can 
we conceive that the institutions could not be conducted except 
at a financial profit, when under our present system private 
individuals are reputed to have grown wealthy through prison 
contracts, while at the same time the prisoners have practi- 
cally paid the running expenses of the institution? The State 
could undoubtedly produce and find a market for all prison 
made goods, even though selling them upon the open market 
might be an undesirable solution of the question, for the rea- 
sons given above relating to the disturbing of industrial condi- 
tions by convict made goods. 

DISPOSAL OF PRODUCTS. 

We again call attention to the State Use System, above 
referred to, the operation of which would employ several hun- 
dred men, provided, of course, that the law shall compel all 
state, county and municipal institutions, even to the commission 
for the new State Capitol, to buy their furniture, clothing, 
shoes, utensils and supplies of various sorts from the prison 
factories. There is brick making and quarrying, labor on public 
works of all kinds, including road building; there is the farming 
and gardening proposition, fruit raising and canning; horticul- 
ture and orcharding, along with other industries, which could 
t>e utilized to the saving of many thousands of dollars annually. 



52] 17 

The binder-twine factory, installed several years ago, was not 
successfully managed from the standpoint of the necessary dis- 
tribution and sale of the product; but we believe this could be 
made a paying investment and that the Missouri farmer will 
patronize this industry if the product be properly exploited 
and sold under systematic methods. Minnesota reaps large 
profits from the binder twine and farm machinery features of 
its prison. Missouri could do likewise, at least so far as twine 
is concerned, and it has been suggested that foundries and 
machinery for the manufacture of bridge materials would be 
a most profitable employment and save the county courts 
much annoyance and expense in bridge building. The State 
prison should co-operate with other State institutions, and we 
favor a central board of control, so that there may be co-opera- 
tion rather than divided responsibility. A state purchasing 
agent or board could thus let our right hand know what our 
left hand is doing, at great saving to the revenue and with 
increased efficiency upon the part of every public institution. 
Missouri stands in loco parentis toward all its wards, whether 
in charitable and eleemosynary institutions, or in the peniten- 
tiary and reformatory, and this Committee believes that one 
of our chief needs is a closer application of the ideas that bind 
and prosper the successful business corporation. Our present 
system is a relic of bygone days and -should be relegated to 
oblivion, and without further delay. 

RECOMMENDATIONS. 

Your Committee desires to make the following suggestions 
regarding needed legislation in connection with our penal insti- 
tutions: 

1st. We unhesitatingly condemn the private contract 
system which now obtains in the Missouri State Penitentiary, 
and recommend its abolishment. We are opposed to the mak*- 
ing of new contracts when the present contracts expire. 

2nd. We favor a law providing for the indeterminate 
sentence system, save and except for murder, treason, rape, 
arson and robbery. There should be a maximum and minimum 
sentence. The trial judge, prosecuting attorney and sheriff 
should make a complete and detailed statement in triplicate 
of the prisoner, his history and all circumstances surrounding 
his conviction; one copy should be filed with the Pardon Board, 



18 52] 

or whatever body may have supervision over prison paroles, 
another with the Governor and a third should be placed on file 
in the county where the defendant is convicted. 

3rd. We favor the creation of an indeterminate prison 
or reformatory for the juvenile offenders, to be separate and 
apart from the prison for hardened criminals, where the juve- 
nile offender may neither see or be associated with the more 
confirmed classes, and we suggest that the age limit for the 
prisoners confined in this institution should be thirty-five years. 
In this connection it might be stated that the prisoners could 
be transferred from one institution to the other, according to 
their behavior and the disposition they may manifest in obey- 
ing the rules of the institution. 

4th. We think the law should be changed and modified 
so as to provide for a hospital, or quarters for the criminal 
insane, at or near the prison proper, and that they should not 
be taken to Fulton, as is now the custom, and placed in that 
institution with the other unfortunate wards of the State. 
We recommend a change in the law providing that no reduction 
of time should be made as against the prisoner who is insane, 
but that the time served in the hospital, or any other place 
of detention, should be deducted from his term of imprisonment. 

5th. We are of the opinion that the prisoner, whether 
confirmed or juvenile, who may be afflicted with any disease, 
infirmity or malady of a serious character, should be placed 
in separate apartments above the other prisoners, to alleviate 
and prevent the contraction or dissemination of any such dis- 
eases or malady. Prisoners affected with pulmonary diseases 
should be transferred to a separate institution at or near Mount 
Vernon, where they can be properly treated. We think that 
separate dining halls, provided with marked tableware, should 
be had for all such as are diseased. This would only require 
a separate dining department or division in the same. The 
State has the right to punish the violator of the law; but we do 
not believe that after that punishment has been inflicted the 
State should permit or provide a place for such punishment 
wherein the prisoner is exposed to deadly disease, his health 
or life ruined or lost, and his innocent family endangered in 
health or diseased by him when he is released. If the State 
does this, in our judgment, it becomes a party to a crime, in fact 
to that which is worse than a crime, because this man is helpless 
and unable to protect himself. 



52] 19 

6th. We believe that a certain portion of the prisoner's 
earning should be credited to him or sent to the family, of 
which he may have been the sole support. Every agency work- 
ing for the prevention of crime has long since learned that it 
is most important to maintain the home and provide for de- 
pendent mothers and children. When the family is broken up 
and the children allowed to drift without supervision, some of 
them will finally stray into error and crime and land in our 
penal institutions. It is a "penny-wise and pound-foolish" 
policy which neglects to provide compensation for prisoners 
and to turn over a part of their earnings for the support of 
the family, and Missouri should not punish the innocent de- 
pendents of this unfortunate individual. 

7th. We favor the adoption of some educational meas- 
ures, providing either day or night schools, which will give to 
every prisoner the benefit of some literary training during his 
period of confinement. 

8th. Your Committee believes that a non-partisan, non- 
sectarian board, whose duties shall include those now involved 
upon the Board of Pardon and Paroles, should be appointed 
through some statutory provision, and that their terms of service 
should be at least six years, so that it may be a continuous body. 
This board, in conjunction with the Governor, should select 
the warden, who should hold his office during good behavior. This 
same board, in connection with the State Purchasing Agent or 
Board, and with the heads of various institutional heads through- 
out the State, could then be organized into a central board of 
control, having supervision over all penal and eleemosynary 
institutions. This sytem, in one form or another, has come to 
be recognized by many of the leading states as wise, beneficial, 
business-like, efficient and economical. Those actually in charge 
of the office work should receive compensation commensurate 
with the immense amount of business they would be compelled 
to transact. 

9th. Your Committee recommends that the female prison- 
ers be transferred either to one of the reformatories for incor- 
rigible girls, or to a place of detention near one of the larger 
cities, where the State can successfully use them for charity, 
for the manufacturing of clothing for the poor, in laundry work, 
in learning domestic arts or in other pursuits through which 
they may earn support for themselves. 



20 [52 

10th. Your Committee estimates that there are fully 
1,000 juveniles and trusty inmates in our prison. One farm would 
not furnish employment for more than one hundred and fifty of 
these men; but we could buy four farms of one or two sections 
each, seventy-five miles east and west and north and south from 
the capital, at such places as would be conducive to health, 
and where land could be purchased reasonably, with a portion of 
such farms improved. By placing 150 prisoners on each of these 
farms in the spring, equipped with tents, they could cultivate 
this land, improve the remainder, construct public highways 
from these points to the Capital, and in the opposite directions. 
With a small brick machine they could manufacture bricks, and 
thus within two or three years could erect suitable buildings for 
their own accommodation, and for the housing and manufacture 
of various articles in this report referred to. If they did not 
get this complete within one year, it would not take more than 
the second year; the first year they could be returned to the 
prison, or such of them as did not have suitable quarters. In 
the judgment of the Committee, if this be done, by the time the 
capitol is completed, we would have a turnpike road to the 
four quarters of the State, and nothing would act as a better 
stimulus for the good road movement. From our observations 
and investigations, we think this would soon be self-sustaining; 
and even if it should not prove to be so, we have many other 
things that are not self-sustaining, to-wit, the Legislature of 
the State and many other officers, courts and municipalities. 
It is not always a safe rule of government to resolve not to engage 
in any business that is not self-sustaining financially, and 
however this recommendation may be regarded, let us again 
remind you that although the revenue may suffer to some extent, 
the systematic outlay of labor on the public highways will prove 
most profitable in the development of our internal resources 
and will act as a spur and stimulus to progress throughout 
rural Missouri. 

11th. Your Committee realizes that a large per cent 
of the citizens of Missouri disapprove of and are not fully in 
favor of capital punishment under all circumstances, and perhaps 
this sentiment is increasing in our State. It is not for your 
Committee to determine this qfuestion for the people of the State, 
but if capital punishment and legal executions are to be continued 
in Missouri, we suggest that instead of placing this great re- 
sponsibility and embarrassment upon an occasional sheriff 



52] 21 

in his immediate locality, with much expense and gloom upon that 
particular community, that any person or persons to be exe- 
cuted, if at all, be so executed at the State Penitentiary in Jeffer- 
son City, where the responsibility of the legal execution can be 
placed upon one man, and that the present system of hanging 
be abolished and the electric chair substituted in lieu thereof. 
12th. We realize that certain products cannot be manu- 
factured at the penitentiary or reformatories with profit unless 
the proper machinery is provided; but we believe that it would 
prove a good investment for the State to buy whatever machinery 
might be needed, and recommend that a certain amount of the 
appropriation to the penitentiary be set aside as a "capital 
fund," to be used by the proper officials in promoting factory 
enterprises at the penal institutions. The State will con- 
tinue for all time, and likewise its responsibilities. No great 
institution was at first self-sustaining. The responsibility is 
here at hand, and even though some of these recommendations 
would increase state expenditures at first, they are neverthe- 
less right. The State and the citizens of the State do not 
expect nor demand that everything be commercialized. There 
is no question, however, in the minds of this Committee that 
from a purely business standpoint this and other recommen- 
dations are practical and worthy of serious consideration. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

Your Committee finds that penal punishment is abolished 
in nearly all the improved prisons and the trusty system substi- 
tuted therefor. Those who have little faith in the honor system 
have but to visit a few of the states where this plan is in vogue, 
to be convinced that the large majority of prisoners will prove 
loyal if confidence is shown them, and that the inmates them- 
selves, if given some form of government to be conducted by 
themselves within the prison walls, upon the farm, or in the road 
camps, will hold the wayward ones in check and ably assist the 
authorities in preserving order and safety. So long as it be 
not abused it is but right that the inmates of our penal insti- 
tutions should be permitted a large measure of privilege, be- 
cause only those who are accustomed to enjoy liberty while 
respecting authority may be fitted for the duties of citizenship 
when they shall return to society. 

Your Committee believes that in all the penal institu- 



22 [52 

tions of the State, prisoners should not only have the benefit 
of trade schools and industrial training, religious exercises and 
school work, but that they should have outdoor exercises and 
amusements, in order that they may be maintained in as nearly 
normal condition as possible. "A sound mind in a sound body" 
applies with equal force to these unfortunates as to the growing 
youth of our State. We would suggest baseball, football, 
running matches, setting up exercises, and such other amuse- 
ments and recreation as the Warden, Chaplain and Board of 
Managers may direct and approve. 

If prisoners were permitted to write the warden or super- 
intendent privately, and make all complaints by letter, with 
none, save and except the prisoner and the warden having 
knowledge what is written, we believe it would bring the warden, 
officers and inmates in closer touch and result in much good 
because of the individual interest and good feeling that would 
be promoted throughout the institution. The modern idea 
in dealing with prisoners is not to break the prisoner's will, 
but to strengthen his will, appeal to the manhood that is in him, 
urge him on to better life, better things and higher ideals, as 
is so well expressed by Warren Codding of the Kansas State 
Prison. 

Warden Codding is correct in stating that men are con- 
victed of crime and sentenced to a penal institution for three 
purposes: (1) To relieve society of the burden and handicap 
of having her misfit citizens violate a law and interfere with 
an orderly and progressive trend of life; (2) to deter others from 
committing like offenses; (3) to reform the man who is a misfit 
and better fit him to return to civil life. 

This is an age when efficiency is demanded, and your 
Committee submits, without any intention of decrying the 
efforts of those who are planning material advancement for the 
State through improved agricultural methods and rural life con- 
ditions, that "to make a vagrant efficient is more praiseworthy 
than to make two blades of grass grow where one grew before." 
We must hold out to every law-breaker who is not actually a 
degenerate the possibility, the hope and the opportunity for 
ultimate regeneration. 

We have touched upon only a few phases of life within 
the prison walls but we believe that a prison board, even such 
as we have now, consisting of State officers (whose experience and 



52] 23 

training have not been along the lines of penology), and the warden 
could well afford to study and adopt many features that have been 
proven worthy at other institutions. For instance, we might 
suggest the installing of a printing plant within the prison 
walls. In many institutions the job printing department is 
quite profitable, as at Pontiac, Illinois, where many circulars 
and state reports are issued by the inmates. Several prisons 
have daily or weekly papers containing censored news from the 
outside world and local happenings, with information helpful 
and interesting to all connected with the institutions. 

We believe that the average period of incarceration is much 
longer than necessary and that when the prisoner shows himself 
to be worthy of trust, he should be released on parole. We 
believe that there should be a close individual study of every 
inmate, in order that indolence may give place to energy, through 
proper diet; that alcoholism may be properly treated and employ- 
ment conducive to a cure may be given the victim of John 
Barleycorn. There is the sexual pervert and the dope fiend; 
if he is compelled to work at something in which he is not inter- 
ested his mind wanders fron his task and his thoughts turn to 
that which is evil. To leave him in solitary places where he 
can dream is to light fires of lust in his dark soul that burn his 
moral being to ashes. He must be given a work to do in the 
pure air, under the bright sunlight, that will bring wholesome 
fatigue and cause the fountains of life to be absorbed with cooling 
influence by his bodily tissue. It is important that he be given 
vigorous manual work, work that is a soporific, so that when 
night comes rest should be sweet to him. 

To place those mentally deficient at the task of learning 
a trade requiring skill is to treat them inhumanely. There 
is work fitted for them and the wise penal administration sets 
them aside to the task for which they are fitted, even as the 
dray horse is kept for his task while the roadster is used for 
another purpose. Your Committee has no sympathy with the 
maudlin sentiment which would make the prisoner's couch a 
bed of roses and would relieve him from the duty of repaying 
his obligations to the State, but we believe with Dr. Peyton of the 
Indiana Reformatory at Jeffersonville, that the prisoner should 
be dealt with from the standpoint of broad humanism and treated 
as a problem of physical science, with the application of scien- 
tific methods in the individual study of every inmate, for we 
cannot hope to interest and to improve the offender unless we 



24 [52 

know him, his conduct, his physical and mental make-up, his 
heredity and environment. Philip E. Bauer, Chief Probation 
Officer of Oregon, quotes from the Oregon State Constitution, 
"Laws for the punishment of crime shall be founded upon the 
principle of reformation and not of vindictive justice," thus 
surely antagonizing the old primitive idea of repression and 
magnifying the newer idea of expression and unfolding of the 
latent powers found in every man, of loyalty, friendship and 
patriotism. 

If the State must punish, and it surely does, it can do it 
with the hand of love, knowing that men are responsive to such 
treatment and knowing, too, that outlawry and open rebellion 
will be superseded by law observance and loyalty. Most men 
are responsive and reflect in life and act the treatment ac- 
corded them. If cruelly repressed they come back with bitter 
antagonism; if hated, they hate back with fury; if trusted, they 
trust; if honored, they respond with honor. In Oregon and 
other states the honor system has more than made good. Nearly 
half of the men in the prison are trusties, who go out to work 
daily without guards, trusted to return at night and honor bound 
to do a fair day's work. 

It must be remembered that the law-breaker is not neces- 
sarily a criminal, and that men can only rise when down by a 
helping hand that helps them to help themselves. Vindictive 
kicks only send them further down the slope. Shall Missouri 
embrace the newer and better ideal? Shall we try to make the 
inmates of our penal institutions better when released from 
prison than when they entered? We realize that all of this 
cannot be done in a day, but we appeal to the thinking men and 
women of Missouri in behalf of the suggestions made in this 
report, asking them to give it a fair consideration; to think 
earnestly upon this great problem, because our social, moral and 
industrial development is influenced more greatly than many 
suppose by our methods of handling law violators, and society 
owes it to itself to demand the passage of laws that will work 
needed reforms. 

It is not the prisoner alone that we are considering; it is 
the citizenship of the State which is involved in the solution 
of this great problem. The taxpayer is deeply concerned, 
but he should not permit sordid views to blind his vision. He 
should not place money above manhood. He should remember 



52] 25 

that it is always somebody's boy who is placed in detention, and 
that somebody's mother is praying that her son may be induced 
to lead a better life. 

Your Committee realizes that no man cares to vote for 
a proposition when public sentiment disapproves of it, and that 
it takes a courageous legislator to vote and support a measure 
and take the initiative affirmatively on questions of great moment 
when he has some doubt as to the approval of the same by an im- 
patient and criticising public; but we submit this report after 
grappling with the problem and earnestly seeking its fair solution, 
and upon these recommendations we stand. If we have aided 
in solving in whole or in part these great social questions to 
the satisfaction of the taxpayers of the State and all concerned, 
we shall not regret the labor we have expended. 

In any event, like the prisoners in a number of the insti- 
tutions that we have visited, who before their evening meal, 
following a day of honest toil, march under the nation's colors, 
place their hands upon their hearts, and upon bended knees 
thank their fellows and their Creator that it is not worse than it is, 
we say while this report may not commend itself in its entirety 
to the Legislature or the people of Missouri, "We have done the 
best we can." 

RECAPITULATION. 

1st.' The abolishment of the private contract system. 

2nd. A law creating the indeterminate sentence system, 
save and except for murder, treason, rape, arson and robbery, 
with a maximum and minimum sentence. 

3rd. The creation of an intermediate prison or reform- 
atory for juvenile offenders, separate and apart from the 
prison for confirmed criminals. 

4th. A change or modification of the law providing for 
a hospital for the criminal insane at or near the prison proper. 

5th. Prisoners, whether confirmed or juvenile, afflicted 
with any disease of a serious character, placed in separate 
apartments above other prisoners, to prevent the contraction 
or dissemination of such disease. Transferring of prisoners 
afflicted with pulmonary diseases to a separate institution at 
or near Mount Vernon, with separate dining halls and marked 
tableware provided for all such as are diseased in any manner. 



26 [52 

6th. The prisoner should be permitted to earn money 
for himself and the support of those dependent upon him. 

7th. The adoption of an educational law giving all prisoners 
the benefit of an education. 

8th. The creation of a non-partisan and non-sectarian 
board under statutory regulation, who may co-operate with the 
Governor in selecting a warden, and supervise the business of 
the institution. 

9th. The transferring of female prisoners either to a 
reformatory for incorrigible girls, or a place of detention 
near some large city, to be used by the State for charity. 

10th. The purchase of four farms of one or two sections 
each, 75 miles east and west and north and south from the 
capital; the placing of 150 prisoners on each farm, provided 
with tents, for the cultivation of the land, and brick manu- 
facturing machinery for the use of such prisoners in the erec- 
tion of buildings; also building roads. 

11th. The abolishment of the present system of hanging, 
and the electric chair substituted in lieu thereof; executions 
to be held only at the State Prison in Jefferson City. 

12th. A certain amount of the appropriations to the 
penitentiary to be set aside as a "capital fund," to be used in 
promoting factory enterprises at penal institutions. 

Respectfully submitted, 

C. P. HAWKINS, 
WALLACE CROSSLEY 
M. E. CASEY 
A. E. L. GARDNER. 

Jefferson City, Mo., January, 1915. 

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